Housing group secures extension on City Hall land deal

The Park City Council recently agreed to extend the deadline to sell City Hall-owned land in Old Town to a group that wants to build a nontraditional housing development.

The elected officials did not spend extensive time discussing the matter. The extension was granted to a firm called Greenpark Cohousing, LLC. The vote was 4-1 with City Councilor Liza Simpson dissenting.

Greenpark Cohousing, LLC plans to purchase from City Hall two old houses and the accompanying land at 1450 Park Ave. and 1460 Park Ave. The two sides earlier reached a $400,000 agreement for the sale.

The City Council granted an extension of the settlement deadline from March 1 until Sept. 1. The March 1 deadline itself was a second extension, after deadlines of June 15, 2013 and Oct. 1, 2013 were pushed back previously. The elected officials at the recent meeting also granted extensions to other deadlines related to the sale.

Greenpark Cohousing, LLC indicated beforehand that the extension was sought based on the amount of time it has taken in the planning process. The group said in a letter to City Hall that its loan application to a bank had not been finalized because "the loan approval is contingent upon final approval of our plans by the city.

The Park City Planning Commission in February cast a key vote in favor of the project. The City Council on Thursday, meanwhile, approved a procedural matter related to the underlying land. Greenpark Cohousing, LLC must still secure a finding from City Hall that the project meets the municipal government’s tight Old Town design guidelines.

The project would be Park City’s first cohousing development. It would include a new eight-unit building and two old houses on the land now would be refurbished. People who intend to live in a cohousing project have great influence in its designs, different than a typical development.